Betis Baloncesto, in search of a title with added value

Excited, hungry and responsible for what is being played this weekend in Burgos, the Real Betis Basketball is two games away from a title. All the effort invested in the Spanish Cupan experimental format tournament that the green and white club has taken very seriously since it started at the beginning of September with the teams in full preseason, would be rewarded if Gonzalo García’s pupils from Vitoria were able to give a double blow in the Coliseum Burgosthe fantastic setting chosen as the venue for this Final Four of the tournament that has four protagonists of which only one can remain.

They dispute the title Betis Baloncesto, Monbús Obradoiro, Odilo Cartagena and Silbö San Pablo Burgos, who will act as host. They are the four survivors of the 40 applicants who began the adventure of a tournament that holds a succulent additional prize for its winner. An added value as precious or even more than the title itself. It’s not an exaggeration. Because the winner of the Spanish Cup will acquire the status of second classified at the end of the regular phase of the First FEB as long as the winner is between second and fifth position. The added prize is most tempting and hence the importance of being crowned in Burgos for a team like Betis Baloncesto, whose five accumulated defeats in the first round, already concluded, have practically removed them from the round of contenders for first place. league, the only one that directly promotes the Endesa League without having to go through the play off screen.

For those who cannot climb directly, being second guarantees the field advantage in the five-game quarter-final tie and then, if they overcome it, face the fifth or sixth ranked team in the semifinals for promotion. It’s not that it’s a bargain, but the path is cleared of difficulties. Due to these conditions, due to the double value of the reward itself, The Final Four of the Spanish Cup faces the league chip although they are two different competitions. Different, yes, but you see, deeply interconnected.

Betis, who will already win the Princess Cup The single match against Bilbao Basket in February 2019 with Curro Segura on the bench, he faces the Final Four “with great enthusiasm”, in the words of Gonzalo García de Vitoria, and with the desire to get even this Friday, in the semifinals against the Monbús Obradoiro, of the ugly and distorted image that the team left in Fuenlabrada, where it was dwarfed by a rival that devoured it in intensity in the first quarter without giving it a chance some of reengaging after the intermission. Betis was too vulnerable in defense, with most of its power sources blocked and without freshness of legs or mind. «Our identification signs did not appear», summarized García de Vitoria, knowing that the team simply did not work.

So the first mission of Betis Basketball It will be to raise your level in all areas to reflect yourself again in the mirror of your personality. That of his best games. What is needed in tournaments of this type, as short as they are intense and of a eliminatory nature, which leave no room for error. With the Bus Obradoiro The green and white team already faced each other in Fontes do Sar at the beginning of December, on a weekday, and ended up defeated in an uneven Betis match, solid at the beginning but too intermittent later and also weighed down by the delay of the free kick. He missed eleven shots from 4.60 in a clash with narrow margins and resolved by four points (71-67).

Felix Alonso and Balvin

The Galicians have not changed their squad since then, although they have changed coaches. Gonzalo Rodríguez was dismissed one day after the victory against Betis, after losing to Fuenlabrada, and was replaced by Felix Alonsoa good connoisseur of the LEB Oro who was acting as Zan Tabak’s assistant in Sopot and changed the Polish project for the Galician one when he received the call to take over the reins of a club that, like Betis, aims to promotion and knows that through the Spanish Cup he could pave that path.

With nine wins and eight losses, seventh in the table, Obradoiro has already taken off the pressure, which can be a burden, of trying to be first. In Burgos they stand after linking two consecutive victories, against Alimerka Oviedo at home and Hestia Menorca away, in the latter with an important performance by the Former box player Balvin, author of 17 points and eight rebounds. The big Czech is one of the main interior resources, the most unbalancing, of a team that on the boards combines height, physique, size, intimidation, seniority, low post and outside shooting. Yes, all that. In the battery integrated by Ale Galán, Micovic, Stevic, Stephens and Balvin lies the main strength of this Obradoiro, without forgetting the scoring capacity of Brad Davisonits main exterior stylet.

Inside, Betis Baloncesto has fewer centimeters, but it has gained strength, intimidation and athletic and defensive capacity with Tundewho redebuted with the green and white shirt in Fuenlabrada with a discreet performance: four points and three rebounds added to his statistics the Sierra Leonean, who should become an important piece of the rotation in Gonzalo García de Vitoria’s team. As he was until his injury, and will continue to be after it, DeBisschopthat perhaps he can lend a hand to his colleagues even though he is far from being one hundred percent. In Fernando Martín, he also returned Cvetkovic after more than a month out of circulation due to a sprained ankle. He was seen to be far from his best level, but he had only had a couple of training sessions and Burgos will arrive with a greater workload and the filming of the nine minutes played in Fuenlabrada. The Serbian is a very important, key player. Much more so now that Pablo Marín and Hansel Atencia, the other two point guards on the squad, have left, and the helm of the team is once again in the hands of Balkan and Renfroe.

Quality and experience

If a priori Obradoiro has a greater number of resources on the boards, Betis Baloncesto presents more arguments on the perimeter, especially in terms of game generation. It is a day for the Betis managers (Renfroe, Cvetkovic, Benite) make the game their own by imposing the rhythm, the tempo, what they want to play. The team must also recover its characteristic success in the triple. These short tournaments are often resolved by the quality of the players, but also by their experience. The ability to coexist and manage situations of maximum pressure. Betis Baloncesto has plenty of talent and experience.which against Monbús Obradoiro will open a place in the Burgos coliseum looking for the keys to the final on Saturday (7:00 p.m.). If he reached it, he would arrive with a slight advantage over his rival. Which would mean having a few more hours of rest compared to the Odilo Cartagena and San Pablo Burgoswhich will close at 8:30 p.m. on the first day of this Final Four that is already raising the curtain.